The purpose of this study was to investigate the changes on what the pre-service elementary mathematics teachers noticed in terms of teacher roles in reform-minded teaching in the new elementary mathematics curriculum in Turkey as they watched video cases and discussed online. The research question was: (1) to what extent the elementary pre-service mathematics teachers’ noticing with respect to the teacher roles in reform-minded teaching changes during their video case-based teacher education? The framework used was Learning to Notice framework which was developed by van Es and Sherin (2002) in the light of previous research on teachers’ ability to notice classroom interactions with the aim of supporting teachers in learning to notice throughout their teacher education. With the use of this framework, the researchers aimed to help teachers learn to notice aspects of reformed classrooms. According to this framework, there are three key aspects of noticing that are (a) identifying what is important or noteworthy about a classroom situation, (b) making connections between the specifics of classroom interactions and the broader principles of teaching and learning they represent, and (c) using what one knows about the context to reason about classroom interactions (van Es & Sherin, 2002, p.573). As van Es and Sherin (2008) state, it is possible to examine the development of teachers’ professional vision for reform pedagogy through the use of Learning to Notice framework (p.2). Via utilizing this framework it might be possible to understand the changes in teachers’ thinking along a period. In the present study, Learning to Notice framework was used in order to examine the changes in pre-service teachers’ ability to notice the aspects of reform-minded teaching and learning. The data were collected during 2008-2009 fall semester from 15 senior pre-service elementary mathematics teachers in the Middle East Technical University (METU), Turkey. In order to investigate the changes on noticing abilities, participants were asked to watch video cases depicting real elementary mathematics classrooms, and then discuss these cases in an online forum. Interviews with 15 participants were the main data sources. The findings are expected to indicate that the participants’ noticing abilities in terms of teacher roles in reformed teaching are improved, and thus, the use of video cases with online discussions is an effective way to prepare future teachers for reform-minded teaching.

Data were collected from 15 senior pre-service elementary mathematics teachers in METU, Ankara, Turkey through the interviews administered at the beginning, middle, and at the end of the semester. For the analysis, constant comparative technique was employed. In creating the coding framework, Learning to Notice (van Es & Sherin, 2008) framework was used. Among the five dimensions of this framework, the first dimension that is the Actor was taken into account, and specifically, the teacher as an actor was selected as the focus. The initial coding schema was created using this dimension, but new codes were added and some others were modified to capture more details of the experience. For the trustworthiness, the data was collected over an extended period of time, and multiple sources of evidence and different evaluators were used. To ensure reliability, two coders evaluated the data and then compared their coding until agreement was found.

The results of the study are expected to indicate that the participants’ noticing abilities in terms of teacher roles in reform-minded teaching are improved. Pre-service teachers are expected to be able to see the aspects of reform-minded teaching and learning in terms of teacher roles in the videos, analyze and discuss them, and broaden their perspectives with respect to the new elementary mathematics program. It is expected that pre-service teachers understand complex teaching experiences better, learn to frame issues like using student thinking and focusing on their difficulties (Masingila & Doerr, 2002); understand the subject matter and be able to identify student misconceptions (Hill & Collopy, 2003); develop professional knowledge through peer interaction and discourse, and explore mathematics, student learning and curriculum innovation through interaction (Manouchehri, 2002). It is expected to conclude that the use of video cases with online discussions is an effective way to prepare future teachers for reform-minded teaching. Such a finding could be used to design teacher education programs, and the ultimate goal of this study would be to help pre-service teachers get prepared for reform-minded classrooms better.